Amoateng finally released on bail


The former Member of Parliament for Nkoranza North, Eric Amoateng, was finally released after meeting die terms of his bail bond, Daily Guide newspaper has reported.

His final release came after he was kept in police custody for several days, despite a court granting him bail last Friday.

As late as 7:00pm on Monday, the embattled former MP was still practi­cally fighting for his release from the police Criminal Investigations Depart­ment (CID) headquarters where he was moved from his cells at the Nima Divisional Police Command.

A police CID source contacted by the newspaper Monday was tight- lipped about the former MP’s release, but simply said he was confident Amoateng was going to be released on Monday, “…yes very sure, provid­ed his lawyer comes,” he said.

All that was left, the source said, was for a few paper works to be sort­ed out by Amoateng’s lawyers.

“The court has already granted him the bail (and] he was to meet the bail requirements,” a source at the CID who wanted to remain anony­mous revealed.

Mr. Eric Amoateng was arrested in the United States in 2005 for traffick­ing over 81 kilograms of heroin val­ued at $6 million to the USA. The American court of law tried and found him guilty and subsequently sentenced him to a 10-year jail term. He was released from the Maximum Security Moshannon Valley Prison in Philsburg, Pennsylvania, last Thurs­day.

However, he was immediately busted by the security agencies on Thursday, 7 August, 2014 when he arrived at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) following his deporta­tion from the USA. He was arrested for allegedly possessing a forged pass­port.

He was detained at the Nima Police Station from last week until yesterday, August 11, because the police claimed he failed to meet his bail condition of GHc200,000 with three sureties as ordered by an Accra circuit court.

Background
On November 7, 2005, Amoateng, then a sitting MP, was said to have taken a three-week leave of absence.

There were speculations that he claimed he was going to the United States to buy watches for one of his wives who owned and ran a boutique.

By November 22, it was confirmed that the MP had been arrested. He had arrived at JFK Airport in New York on a United Emirates Flight on Novem­ber 8, where he met a friend—one Nii Okai Adjei—on the connecting flight from London to New York.

A day earlier, seven boxes of pot­tery had landed at Newark Airport from London, destined for JFK where the two men were supposed to pick them (boxes) up.

Unknown to them, airport officials had found over 80 kilograms of heroin packed carefully into the pots and were monitoring who would come along to pick up the package.

Amoateng, Adjei and a third man, ‘ Gamelie Kuonoe, went to pick up the boxes at the storage facility on November 11 and were tracked down and arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

The drug kingpins were hauled before a US court and Judge David G. Tragger delivered the judgment on December 12, 2007, at a Brooklyn court.

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